Next Level University

Admittance Comes Before Alignment (1929)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 42:24

In this Freestyle Friday episode, Kevin and Alan discuss the courage it takes to admit what truly matters to you and how to stay disciplined in living it out. From fitness habits to holiday traditions, they share relatable stories and offer practical advice for honoring your core values without guilt or fear of judgment. If you’re ready to prioritize what’s important and build a life true to who you are, this episode is for you.

Link mentioned:
Next Level Group Coaching - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
Group 17 - The 1st call is on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 5 PM EST, and the group runs for 3 months. Discount Code for N.L. Group Coaching (30% off): NLULISTENER

______________________

NLU is not just a podcast; it’s a gateway to a wealth of resources designed to help you achieve your goals and dreams. From our Next Level Dreamliner to our Group Coaching, we offer a variety of tools and communities to support your personal development journey.

For more information, please check out our website at the link below. 👇

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

_______________________

Any of these communities or resources are FREE to join and consume
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level 5 To Thrive (free course) - ​​https://bit.ly/3xffver
Next Level U Book Club - https://bit.ly/3BQBYDr
Next Level Monthly Meet-up:  https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/

_______________________

We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or via email. We’re here to support you in your personal and professional development journey.

Instagram 📷
Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

Facebook ✍
Alan: https://www.facebook.com/alan.lazaros
Kevin: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.palmieri.90/

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

LinkedIn ✍
Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

_______________________

Show notes:
(2:22) Admitting what aligns with you
(9:49) The courage to own your values
(18:31) Why discipline strengthens alignment
(23:22) At NLU, we want you to win! So, we’re giving tools and resources to ensure your success. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month at 5 PM. https://bit.ly/49SyVHz
(26:11) Avoiding misaligned standards
(30:08) Revisiting identity and priorities
(38:26) Future self Vs. Present self
(41:17) Next-Level opportunities

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Kevin Palmieri

next time I travel, will I be more focused on fitness? I don't know, maybe, maybe I will. I think that's the weird thing about me is there are certain times where I'm just like I'm going to live life and I'm okay with that. So maybe it's not a 10. Maybe it's a nine, I don't know. Sometimes I just want to live life. Sometimes I just want to live life and I don't want to have to think about it. I don't own.

Alan Lazaros

What we value most is because once you do, you now have to have the discipline to actually do it. If you own that, you actually value fitness at level 10 and you don't follow through. Now you're breaking promises to yourself and your relationship with yourself is getting worse.

Kevin Palmieri

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, kevin Palmieri, and.

Alan Lazaros

I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.

Kevin Palmieri

At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life love health and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

We bring you a new episode every single day, on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits and defining your own unique version of success.

Alan Lazaros

Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri

Welcome to Next Level University. Next Level University, next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level University, where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. Today, for episode number 1929, it's Freestyle Friday. Freestyle Friday For those of you who may be new, freestyle Friday is an episode where we don't know what we're going to talk about until we talk about it, and then we'll figure out what it is and then we'll title it and all that happy jazz. Most of our episodes, we know exactly what we're going to talk about before we go in, so this is always a fun one.

Kevin Palmieri

This was my thought and I journaled about this today. I journaled about the fact that, in order to so, there's two A's when it comes to alignment, admittance. I always think mittens factory when I say that Admittance and alignment. You cannot become in alignment unless you admit what is actually alignment in the first place.

Kevin Palmieri

And I think the holidays, for me, were a really good example of that, where I was a little scared to tell Alan I didn't want to work Christmas Eve or Christmas, not because Alan was going to say anything mean or any of that. I just know Alan was going to be working both days, because Alan values the mission and that's what he wanted to do and that's what's in alignment for him. And there was a part of me and I told him. I said dude, I'm sorry, man, I feel, I feel bad, I'm a bit nervous, I'm a little bit ashamed. And Alan was like dude, you're good, don't worry about it, you're good. I completely understand. That was in alignment for me, but it required me to admit the fact that, hey, man, I don't really want to work Christmas Eve. I want to spend it with my family and I want to watch movies and I want to sip hot cocoa and.

Kevin Palmieri

I definitely don't want to work Christmas. What a sip hot cocoa. And I definitely don't want to wear Christmas. What movie. So we watched a bunch, not as many this year as last year. This year we watched it's a Wonderful Life. We watched Red One with a Rock oh, so bad.

Alan Lazaros

Was it bad? It was bad.

Kevin Palmieri

Dwayne figure it out. I think he made like 50 million for that movie. That was his take home. I think it was or not take home, but that's what he got paid 50 million for that movie, dwayne Dwayne.

Alan Lazaros

Terrible movie.

Kevin Palmieri

There's no way I've never produced or starred in a movie, so I can't talk that much trash and would I say it to the man's face. I'm a coward. Real quick yeah quick.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, what I say to the man's face. I seriously doubt it. Probably not. No, no, he's large. Yeah, the question I have for you, please do you think that movie made any money? No, those of you real quick, sorry to interrupt. You ask you a question that intro yeah, yeah sure the amount of money that it's required.

Alan Lazaros

So let's say a million costs a million a movie. Wow, a movie costs 100 million to make. They need to gross a huge amount it. That means it's another 100 million to market it. So 100 million to make, 100 million to market it, bring it to market. And it needs to gross significantly more than that, more than double that. So that's 200 million. So it needs to gross at least 400 million to be worth it after everyone's paid. I mean there's accountants on set, budgeting director, actors, actresses, makeup. I mean there's a ton cgi and I didn't. I mean that's the tip of the iceberg. Do you think that movie made made money?

Kevin Palmieri

There's no way. Yeah, I believe it cost $250 million to make Dude With no marketing. That's not including marketing. And Chris Evans was in it. Yeah, lucy Liu was in it. Lucy Liu didn't have a huge part, but she was in it, so there were some pretty large actors and actresses that probably require. I'm pretty sure the Rock made $50 million, so it's a lot of money.

Alan Lazaros

Well, and again, this is not about movies. The one thing that might justify that payday is the Rock obviously has the largest, one of the largest, social media followings in the world, so the marketing.

Kevin Palmieri

He produced it. He produced it marketing produced it.

Alan Lazaros

He produced it too. That's also why, yeah, so so his company fronted a lot of the risk.

Kevin Palmieri

This was fun, this was a funny part to me and again we'll get off of it. I'm very into. I don't know there's a. There's a thing I'm weird with stuff like this, where I love to know what's going on behind the scenes of things, because it I've learned so much about people and about stuff that I never knew about when I learned about the behind the scenes and I completely forgot what I was gonna say red isn't the worst when that happens, I hate it.

Kevin Palmieri

I was like so excited to talk about it, and then it just completely left.

Alan Lazaros

I said he, I said he produced it yeah and that's why he took more of the risk. Go ahead.

Kevin Palmieri

He, this movie was supposed to go direct to Amazon Prime. Okay, evidently the Rock watched Oppenheimer and IMAX and said Red One has to also be an IMAX.

Kevin Palmieri

No this is a game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like this is a game. This will blow the whole thing up. No, sir Oppenheimer is one of the greatest films of all time by one of the greatest directors of all time. You don't need to be fighting snowmen on the beach in IMAX. No offense, again, I wouldn't say it to the man's face. But yeah, I fell asleep, I had Chinese food and I fell asleep and when I woke up I was like ah, I'm glad I fell asleep.

Alan Lazaros

So asleep and when I woke up I was like ah, I'm glad I fell asleep. So we watched the grinch. It's a great movie. It was great.

Kevin Palmieri

The 2001 with jim carrey great one of the best christmas movies of all time it was hilarious.

Alan Lazaros

It's a great movie, really funny. Okay, what was the point you were making before this?

Kevin Palmieri

you asked me what movies? It's a wonderful. Life red one christmas chronicles. Life Red One Christmas Chronicles. Toy Story 1, not Toy Story 1, home Alone 1.

Alan Lazaros

Home Alone. 1. Is Movie Marathon a tradition?

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, so I don't want to work Christmas Eve or Christmas.

Alan Lazaros

I'm a huge fan. Movie Marathon's not the best. It's hard to get through nine movies if you have calls on those days.

Kevin Palmieri

You know what I mean. It's hard to get through nine movies. You can't be disturbed Very quickly.

Alan Lazaros

I know we've added zero value so far, so far. Yes, the one of my birthdays it wasn't this past one, but the one before emily always asked what do you want to do? And I wanted to do a hobbit marathon those movies, the extended versions. So the extended versions are an average of three and a half hours each. I was up at midnight like with one of my eyes twitching. She had, honestly, I finished it, dude, I did it. That was a mistake. It was a whole sunday.

Alan Lazaros

I took the whole day yeah, and I just watched the hobbit movies the full extended version on my 83 inch in the bedroom. It was an awesome day in some ways, but by the middle of the third movie I was like this was a mistake.

Kevin Palmieri

This was a mistake. Now it's just caused sunk bias. Well, yeah, at that point you've got to finish. I had a very nostalgic night the night before Christmas Eve. So Christmas Eve Eve, Taryn fell asleep at like 7 o'clock and I watched Bad Santa Again. It's a graphic movie, oh no, but I was freaking, dying left. I was laughing so hard and I texted matt because matt and I used to watch that together all the time and I sent him a picture of it and I was like dude, this is funnier than I remember this is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen the grinch was funnier than I remember for sure.

Alan Lazaros

Well, different, different comedy yeah, definitely, yeah, definitely different, but that was. I've never actually seen bad santa. The Grinch was funnier than I remember, for sure. Well, different comedy yeah, definitely, slightly different, definitely different, I've never actually seen Bad Santa there's some stuff in there. I've seen several clips that 2003. I think this came out in 2003.

Kevin Palmieri

So there was a lot of pretty toxic stuff that at the time was just like yeah, this is, you know, this is normal. Well, normal shouldn't be normal in certain, in certain points. So again, I wouldn't recommend. I recommend it, but for me it was a nostalgia watch welcome everyone to alan and kevin's movie hour.

Alan Lazaros

Movie movie review.

The courage to own your values

Kevin Palmieri

Well, yeah, so alignment and yeah it all came from, that it all came from. I think one of the reasons it's so hard to stay in alignment is because it requires courage to admit what alignment actually is If you are ashamed at all of what you value. I remember when I used to travel for work, it was a running joke because the first thing I would ask my boss is I would say, what town are we working in? And he'd say, oh, you need to look for a gym. I said, yeah, I need to look for a gym. They were never negative about that.

Kevin Palmieri

That became the identity and that became sometimes you would literally say like, oh, kev, when I was visiting the hotel, I saw there's a gym right down the street Perfect, love that. But I had to admit how important that was to me. And when you admit what's important to you, there is a potential for lash out or push back or whatever it is, and I think that's why it's so. It's so easy to just go with the flow and then regret it and then get frustrated and then resent people, because it takes a lot of courage to admit what you actually value and admit what alignment actually is for you.

Alan Lazaros

It took courage on my end as well. And it's interesting that we're having this conversation because I was on with a client of mine, linda. I actually have two Linda clients, so anyways, you'll know who I'm talking about and you'll know if it's not you, but anyways, so shout out to Linda. She said there's three things that I'm working on right now. One of them is self-awareness, which is awareness, a they all begin with A Awareness. The next one is alignment. The third one is action. So new awareness brings new opportunity for alignment, and that means I need to take a new action. And it's funny that you brought this up for freestyle friday, because whenever you do get a new awareness about yourself. And when you said admittance, I think that's good because sometimes you're aware, okay, I value productivity. So it was courageous for you to say I don't want to work Christmas Eve. You know what's interesting. It was just as courageous for me to say I do.

Alan Lazaros

I had a client who had a call booked on Christmas Day. I actually ended up doing two coaching sessions on Christmas Day. At the time I only had one booked and I saw my calendar deleted, declined, and I messaged this person and I said hey, you declined what you can't make, it you can't make that time. You didn't want to work Christmas. And it wasn't a negative thing. It wasn't me being negative. It was do you want to reschedule? And she said no, I figured you weren't going to work Christmas and I said no, no, no, no, no, I'm game, let's rock and roll. So we put it back on the count. She's like oh, I'm game. I didn't think you would be. Who the f do you think you're talking to?

Alan Lazaros

here, right I'm obviously playful, and I'm reading right now a reading. It's a workshop called focus by stephen r covey and it's Achieving your Highest Priorities and, at the end of the day, why I bring that up too is in this workshop they're talking about. It's basically one of those live audios of an actual workshop, with people in it and they give the microphone. You can hear them talking and it's their workshopping out what's urgent versus important, all this stuff. But they're doing core values.

Alan Lazaros

Right now, my productivity is one of my most important subjects that I study and I value it at level 10. But other people don't necessarily, certainly not on the holidays, and it takes a lot of courage to say emily and I are not going to be available on christmas eve and christmas and we ended up seeing family before and after and we're actually going to go see some family on sunday instead. But that was the most aligned christmas. That was the most aligned holiday I've ever had, and emily and I were talking about it, and it took courage for you to say, hey, I don't want to work christmas.

Kevin Palmieri

It took courage for me to say, hey, I do well, I think that's the beauty again not to pump our tires. That's what I like about you and I having very different core values in some ways, you and I having very different core values in some ways. You and I have very similar core values in other ways. But as we lean more into who and who and who we are and we really want to be more and more, I want to be me and you want to be you. Who and who and who.

Kevin Palmieri

More and more and more the who's down in Whoville.

Kevin Palmieri

So here, this is the interesting thing I haven't podcasted in two days, maybe three days, because I don't know if I podcasted it on the day before Christmas Eve. That's what happens when you don't do it. I'm so used to doing it every day, or at least six times a week, like in a row. When I don't do it, I notice a not a drastic difference, but I notice a difference. Yeah, imposter syndrome comes back a little bit. Am I still good at this? You could very easily say to people well, you should work holidays. I could very easily say to people well, you should never work holidays. The truth is it, what if you had the opportunity to choose? So I told alan. I said I don't want the team to have to work on Christmas Eve or Christmas.

Alan Lazaros

Well, they also asked.

Kevin Palmieri

Ron had mentioned. But even then, if somebody values it, I would like them to have the opportunity not to do it, because I have the opportunity not to do it and the last thing I want is somebody to do it. If they value it as much or more than I do, I'd like for them to have that opportunity. But it's not that advice depends on who you are and what you want. That's why it's so hard to hear advice in a vacuum, because it's the advice. That's. The advice that you take in the moment depends on what you're aiming for long term and it depends on what alignment actually means to you.

Kevin Palmieri

I went to the gym on Christmas Eve. I didn't go to the gym on Christmas. I went to the gym on Christmas. Did I go to the gym on Christmas Eve? I don't know if I did. We had to get up early. It was a whole thing. But it's not that I didn't want to do anything, it was just. I know that if I have calls scheduled family, that's a whole thing. If we're going to family, I can't go until four. It becomes this whole thing. There's stuff under it. There's stuff under it. I still checked WhatsApp and made sure nothing was burning down that type of stuff, right. So I don't know. I just I understand why it's very hard, because if you're not willing to admit how important something is to you, you don't bring it up, nobody else knows. And then you start to resent people because they don't go along with your core values, unless they just happen to conveniently have the same ones as you.

Alan Lazaros

And when you do bring it up, you sometimes do get lashback. Definitely, a lot of people had a really hard time with Emilie and I sort of I don't want to say opting out, but doing our own thing on the holidays, and some people were totally fine with it. But again, it's core values in conflict. If you just go along with the flow, no one's going to be upset with you. However, you're going to be upset with you when you went out of alignment. I think owning what you value is scary and I think the reason why is number one socially. That's the big reason I struggle to own what I value, because the truth is not. A lot of people I mean, if you look at the statistics of that, how many people want to work on Christmas and Christmas Eve?

Kevin Palmieri

I can't imagine very many. Yeah, I can't imagine very many. Yeah, I can't imagine very many.

Alan Lazaros

That feels very scary to own. It was the best Christmas and Christmas Eve I've ever had, bar none. It's not even close. It's unbelievable. I went to the gym both days. No, I exercised both days. I went to the gym yesterday.

Kevin Palmieri

I was actually surprised there was quite a few people in there. In there you wear a santa hat. I did not. I was going, I had a full ready to go and I just then, I just didn't go, I just didn't go. That's a big piece of it I was going.

Why discipline strengthens alignment

Alan Lazaros

So social is number one, and that might be the reason why you don't own what you really value, because what you really value might be really rare. That's not normal. Luckily, amelia and I both value that. She worked too. So that's number one. Number two is when you do own it, you might get social lashback. Number three I think one of the deeper reasons why we don't own what we value most is because once you do, you now have to have the discipline to actually do it. What do I mean by that? Let me try to clarify that. If I own that I value fitness at level 10, well, now I better get my ass to the gym. Well, now I better get my ass to the gym. And so it's almost.

Alan Lazaros

I think everyone struggles to own what they value for one of two reasons either external of you, socially or internal. You're afraid you won't follow through. If you own that you actually value fitness at level 10 and you don't follow through now you're breaking promises to yourself and your relationship with yourself is getting worse. So number one is you're afraid to break promises to others. My values are different. I can't make it.

Alan Lazaros

I got invited to a holiday party at my mom-mom and pop-ups and I'm going to go see mom-mom on Sunday actually we're going to go see her, nana and my grandma instead One-on-one, like closer time instead of the big event and so we found a way that was aligned. But saying no to that there was definitely a moment of am I going to get shit on for this? But I think one reason people really struggle to own what they value is because once you admit to yourself that you value that at that level, now you really have to prove to yourself that you value it with your actions, and I think that takes a lot of self discipline what do you think I value fitness at a fitness app on a scale way more?

Alan Lazaros

than you think you're so miserable when you're not doing fitness I just know it's dude.

Kevin Palmieri

I think it's a 10.

Alan Lazaros

No, no way I think it is, and I and I think, well again, are we comparing to statistics? Are we comparing to no, probably you. Oh well then, yeah, it's not a 10. I would say I value it more than you do, which is weird to say out loud no, that's.

Kevin Palmieri

I've said that. How many times have I said that? Pan the scenes. There's a reason I don't want to exercise every day. That's not because I don't think I could. I genuinely think it. Would it be terrible? Yes, it would be absolutely horrible, but I I do believe deep down I could do it. I mean, I've had spurts where I haven't missed in a long time. It's more the fact that I don't want to sign up for that.

Alan Lazaros

That's my honest truth.

Kevin Palmieri

If I want to sleep in on a Sunday, I don't want to have to do anything Signing up for 45 minutes was tough.

Alan Lazaros

It's been challenging, yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

When you're 100, it'll be awesome, but until then it'll suck.

Alan Lazaros

I do think it's worth it, but again, of course I would. So I think you value fitness at a 10, statistically speaking, and I think you value it deep down more than you have admitted to yourself. But again, what am I basing that off of? This is what I do for a living. As pretentious as all of this is going to come off, I see the delta between highest self and human self. So highest self, kev, fucking, loves fitness, obsessed, wants to be jacked, wants to be in better shape, wants to be athletic as hell, wants to be capable. I mean, just loves it, loves it. Human Kev is like I, like chinese food. Now, these two are always in conflict and sometimes not. So you let your human self eat chinese food, so do I. Chinese food is the only place open. On christmas, baby, I had it last night. It was awesome and also not that great as the place near us new china p dude.

Alan Lazaros

Uh, goddamn so highest self kev values it, I think, way more than human self kev wants to admit, because then human self kev has to get his shit together.

Kevin Palmieri

I don't know, I feel like, or is it the? Opposite, I feel like Well, no, I feel like right now it's I like five to six days a week.

Alan Lazaros

You're so much more fulfilled, though, when you're crushing it in fitness.

Kevin Palmieri

Well, I'm saying right now I feel like I'm doing it the optimal amount Agreed. I went in today and I did a heavy chest day and I thought my shoulder Was going to fall off.

Alan Lazaros

Can you tell us Vulnerably a time Recently, within the last year, 2024?

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

Where you were telling yourself A story that you were Doing the optimal amount, when in reality, deep down, highest self was like Get your fucking shit together. My highest self Is very intense. I can sense that. Maybe it says it nicer than that.

Kevin Palmieri

Man, it's hard because I don't remember Probably when I was training jujitsu, yeah, or before that. Again, I wasn't super focused on fitness at the beginning of the year. I don't think Like I was, jeff, and hold on, let me look, cause my my gym. If you go on their app, it tells you how many workouts you had which is super cool.

Alan Lazaros

Nlu listener what is happening? I just wanted to jump in here and let you know if you want to get to the next level faster. We have a free virtual monthly meetup at the first Thursday of every month. You can connect with like-minded people and become a bigger part of this amazing global community. The link to register will be in the show notes While Kev's looking this up. I just want to make this relevant and valuable for everybody.

Alan Lazaros

I think sometimes we tell ourselves a story that we value things more than we really do. I have one client I'm thinking of where I called him out on and I said brother, can you be really honest with me for a second? Does it bother you how out of shape you are? And I said I don't mean this any negative way. I know. You know that we've been working together for years. He said, honestly, not really. I said I'm going to say something. I'm going to hold up a mirror just for a second. I said I want you to look at me right now. This bothers me every day. Every day, this bothers me.

Alan Lazaros

I value fitness so much. I cannot stand that I'm this out of shape. He's like well, you're not out of shape. I said it's all relative for you I'm not, but the only reason I look this way is because I'm aiming much better than this and, by the way, I was way better than this in the past. And so for everyone out there, some people are telling themselves a story that they value something at level 10, that in reality, deep, deep down, you actually don't value it that much and that's why you keep breaking the promises. Oh, I'm gonna go to the gym and then you don't. He I said just accept it, just own it. I said zero to ten. How much do you value finances? He said 12. I said I know you know how easy it is to get you to track finances. I said zero to ten. How much do you value fitness?

Kevin Palmieri

He's like seven, maybe eight, I was like dude.

Alan Lazaros

Dude, it's probably like a six. That's okay, that's okay, Own it. We should not be shooting for fitness model results when you don't even care when you're at. I said when you're at a barbecue, does it bother you to not be in great shape? He's like no. I said, dude, that's okay. It bothers me. Every time, always.

Alan Lazaros

And people think, well, are you toxic? Why does it bother you? You're in such great shape. Listen, this is you versus you. This whole game is you versus you. This is you versus your potential. This is not.

Alan Lazaros

If you think I'm in great shape, I appreciate that that's awesome, but this is, this is a fraction of what I know I'm supposed to do. This is a fraction of what I would like to do, that I know I can do, that I'm capable of and again, I'm not. I'm not saying I'm out of shape, I would. I'm in better shape than I was earlier this year, but not nearly to my best, and if it didn't bother me, I wouldn't be working harder to improve it.

Alan Lazaros

And I think that all of us have to sit with our core values and then don't set level 10 standards for a level two core value. That's the point, and I see people doing that all the time. Sometimes you set a level two standard when you have a level 10 core value and then you end up unfulfilled. Sometimes you set a level 10 standard because it's you end up unfulfilled. Sometimes you set a level 10 standard because it's what you think you're supposed to do in quotes, when in reality you only value it at level five. So just give yourself a level five standard well said, thank you I.

Kevin Palmieri

So here's the thing. I don't know if I thought I was doing it well, I don't think I did, because I remember saying like i'm'm Jeffing, yeah, in December of 2023. Now again, I think I was also doing jujitsu. I don't remember when I started. I remember it was cold. Oh no, yeah, I was doing jujitsu, because I remember I did a grappling session on Christmas Eve, but I I went to the gym and weight trained three times in December of 2023.

Alan Lazaros

Okay, talk to me about how much that affects. As someone who, how much do you value weight training?

Kevin Palmieri

Well, here's the thing. Statistically speaking Ten statistically speaking.

Alan Lazaros

Okay, what was your standard at the time?

Kevin Palmieri

I was grappling, so grappling was new, so I didn't care.

Alan Lazaros

As much yeah, but that it still was bothering you beneath the surface. We all have things beneath the surface not as much as you think dude it was a dream for me to grapple again. I remember when I saw you in person. I remember thinking nice you. You had lost a lot of weight, you were sweating off and your skin looked better like the cardio side was very strong.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

I remember thinking that yeah, it's great.

Kevin Palmieri

It's great. I mean, you want to lose some. I mean it depends on what you're doing, but you want to lose weight, go grapple. You're not talking about how many calories you burn in an hour grappling session, it's what do you think?

Alan Lazaros

Obviously it depends on body. But what do you think? Twice as much as weight training, way more, three times Probably. That's wild. I mean, I've never done it, so I don't know.

Kevin Palmieri

Your heart rate is high pretty much the entire time. Yeah, it's a lot, I mean, and you're sweating. They're like I told tyron one time I was like you'd be. I think you'd love grappling, other than the fact that you don't like germs. So that's not going to do it because in the summer, the mats are covered in sweat. It's like disgusting, yeah, but you're sweating a ton. So january 2024, I went 18 February, 10, March 4. So I think March April.

Alan Lazaros

May I went three. Talk to us about October November.

Kevin Palmieri

December, October, November, December. Can I guess If I was you?

Alan Lazaros

I would start. October is 24. November is 24. November is no 20. October is 20. November is 24. December because we're not done yet is 22.

Kevin Palmieri

October was 22. November was 21. And December is 16.

Alan Lazaros

December is 16?

Kevin Palmieri

16 in December.

Alan Lazaros

I thought you were doing five days a week I'm jeffing.

Kevin Palmieri

Well, the first week I did four. Second week I did five. Third week I did five. This week I've only worked out twice because of Christmas Eve, yeah no, that makes sense.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, you've been crushing it though the last couple months 21, 22.

Kevin Palmieri

It started in June. It was 19. July was 28. So July, I hit a groove of okay, we're going to go back full-time bodybuilding, we are going to be a bodybuilder again. That was in July and again, that's the weird thing is it feels like it's been that way for a year. It hasn't. It's been that way for five months.

Alan Lazaros

I know.

Kevin Palmieri

That's the weird thing about identity and that was just a conversation with me rechecking in, saying no, I am a bodybuilder and I want to be a bodybuilder. And let me figure out. What does it mean for me to be a bodybuilder? And I remember I bought new stringers and Taryn got me new shoes for the gym for my birthday and so, yeah, it's interesting.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, going back to stringers was necessary. Man, it's necessary, it's a game changer. You gotta see the muscles you gotta, yeah, you gotta.

Kevin Palmieri

You need the feedback. You gotta see, you can tell, you can. That's a thing, that's a that's a thing, it's a thing you gotta. You gotta see the differences. You see the, the body fat percentage. You see veins weird stuff.

Alan Lazaros

What does alignment even mean? It means aligned with your goals and aligned with your core values. So, if everyone wants something practical, what are your top three core values for this quarter, this coming up quarter, q1 of 2025? And then what are goals that you can set in each of those categories?

Kevin Palmieri

You need a target If you've ever said I feel out of alignment with what? What is the thing that you're doing and what does it feel out of alignment with that? One of the other hard things, too, is when I went to Scotland with Taryn I, just before we went, I said I'm not going to exercise while we're there. I'm not. We're in a different town almost every day. I'm not going to try to find a gym Like what are we doing here? There's no way I'm going to do that. Could I have gone for runs? Sure, well, a bodybuilder, so the identity, so no, but that that's something too. I next time I travel, will I be more focused on fitness? I don't know. Maybe, maybe I will, I don't. I think that's. The weird thing about me is there are certain times where I'm just like I'm gonna live life and I'm okay with that. So maybe it's not a 10. Maybe it's a 9. I don't know, I don't know.

Alan Lazaros

Sometimes I just want to live life.

Kevin Palmieri

Sometimes I just want to live life and I don't want to have to think about it. I don't have to think about where's the gym, what time is it open? What is 35 pounds in dollars? Is that a lot for a gym? I trust the numbers on that. Sometimes you don't want to think about that, you just want to say you know what? I'm going to have a Guinness and six Guinnesses before I go to bed, and then I'll just wake up when I do, and then Taryn and I are going to hit the road. We're going to drive five hours to the next destination. I'm not going to worry about it.

Alan Lazaros

I hours to the next destination. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm reading a book right now called the Productivity Project and I've been reading it every morning with the new morning routine I've been implementing. And Chris Bailey, I'm coming around on him. He talks about your relationship with your future self and he has this really cool. I know we got to jump, but he has this really cool graphic in the book where it shows all the different. It's like a venn diagram, but one that gets closer. You know how the eclipse there's the sun behind the moon. It's kind of like that you have current self and future self and that's happening. There's a bunch of different pictures of this happening and I realized alignment in many regards is integrating what your current self values with what's best for your future self. And when I looked at the graphics this is in the morning I was thinking to myself I think one of the reasons why I'm so playfully socially ostracized is because I value future self a lot more than present self, and I think that that's very uncommon statistically.

Alan Lazaros

I do. I'm always prioritizing my future, not always, not always. I mean, I wouldn't get Chinese food if that was the case. Right, that's not best for future self. I know that, don't care, I'm gonna do it anyway. But I very rarely I would say 90 of my choices are for future self very rarely do I say screw the future self, I'm letting this ride, and I do occasionally and I think you have to take care of both. And so some people are 80 20, some people are 50 50, some people are 80 20. The other way I would say I'm 80 future self, 20, current self. Uh, I would ask the listeners and or viewers to ask themselves what, what is yours? And then where do you want it to shift? Because I remember you telling me you were 100 present self way back in the day and that was wildly detrimental but awesome, too awesome in the moment it's the best in the moment, just the best comes over here selling it.

Kevin Palmieri

No, I'm very I like, I like to be very honest about that. It's most of the stuff that's not good for us is really easy to do. Yeah, it's just that it's like, most of the stuff that's really easy to do is just not. It's just not great for you if it. It's really really really, really really easy for you right now. Current self, it's probably not what's ideal for future self. If you think about that. If you think about that and, on the other front, if it's like unreasonably hard, devastating and changing you in negative ways, it also might not be ideal for future self. And when I say that, I'm thinking of like, think of like a football player. Yeah, it looks awesome, you're playing in front of these massive audiences and you're making millions of dollars a year and then, 15 years after you retire, you have CTE and you can't bend over to pick up your kids.

Alan Lazaros

Not everybody. For those of you who don't know, for the people who don't know CTE.

Kevin Palmieri

I don't know what the actual name is, but when you get too many concussions, essentially your brain starts to rot, unfortunately, yeah. And you end up with anger problems and memory problems and depression Again and you end up with anger problems and memory problems and depression. And again I don't have a degree in anything so I don't listen to anything I say, but chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Alan Lazaros

Encephalopathy is a degenerative brain disease that can result from repeated head injuries or blows to the head. The idea is, yeah, the soft tissue of your brain bumps up against your skull too many times. I've actually got brain scans that I have in my my one of my folders it's called the everything folder I use in coaching, and it shows smokers, it shows drug addicts, it shows, it shows the brain scans of all these different ailments, all these different things. Ct is one of them and one of them is bad sleep Interesting. Bad sleep affects your brain a lot. So, anyways, a little side tangent. But future self, current self. Sometimes you've got to prioritize future self and I would just say, integrate them. That's really what it comes down to is you've got to integrate future self and current self and that's what alignment I think is.

Kevin Palmieri

It's a hard thing. It's a hard thing because I think this is another place where time perspective comes in. I didn't really understand. I didn't start working out when I was young so I could take care of myself when I was older. That's not why I did it. I started working out because I wanted to get jacked. That was it. And now, over time, I see people who are older, in their 50s and 60s, and I say, okay, well, they didn't take care of themselves. Ooh, brutal, they weren't weight training and they weren't doing mobility and they weren't getting enough sleep and they weren't staying hydrated.

Kevin Palmieri

That's something I think you and I take for granted. You and I are always hydrated.

Alan Lazaros

Lately I've been Jeffing that I want to do an episode. I told kev soon on 2024 and then what we're going to try to do differently in 2025. One of mine for sure is better hydration, because I'm only drinking two of these a day, which is what. This is 32 ounces, so you're looking at 64 ounces. I'm 190 pounds, it's not yeah but you, but you have energy drinks.

Kevin Palmieri

You have protein shake.

Alan Lazaros

So we started doing the Fair Life milk instead of the protein shake to save money, but yeah, Everyone can reflect on 2024 and think here's what I did well and here's what I didn't do very well and here's how I can do better in 2025.

Kevin Palmieri

Maybe we'll do that for the first episode.

Alan Lazaros

We'll see I would love to.

Kevin Palmieri

We'll see. We'll see when we do it. I'm trying to. Al and I are trying to do a better job of like actually doing episodes on days. Sometimes we're just so in it that I don't even know what day it is. It's like, oh cool, let's do this episode on this one. We could do an episode that would be more timely, time-based, appropriate. So we'll figure that out. All right, cool. Next 11 Nation. If you, this is different. This is a little bit different.

Kevin Palmieri

If you are a listener of NLU and you are a podcaster. Our 17th round of group coaching starts on January 7th and this is going to be our second ever group. That is all podcasters. So we focus on growing you. So grow yourself in the first two sessions, grow your podcast in the second two sessions and then grow your business in the last two sessions. So level up yourself, level up your podcast, level your business. If you are a podcaster who listens to us, then obviously we probably have very similar core values, core beliefs and core aspirations and you know how we do the podcast and you know that I coach podcasters and Alan coaches business owners and all that happy jazz. So if you're interested, we'll have the link in the show notes. I think it's all set up. It's ready to go.

Alan Lazaros

With the $97 per month. Yes, I'm on the website right now. It's 12 days out and it comes to with the discount code 96,.

Alan Lazaros

Almost 97 if you round up 96.60, I believe it's 12 sessions. So you get six sessions with Kevin and myself. The first two, as you mentioned, level up yourself, level up your podcast, level up your business. But it's 12 sessions because there's connection sessions in between with Amy, our assistant coach. So we did the math out. If you pay for the three month program with the discount code NLU listener all one word, capital or not, it comes to, as Kevin mentioned, $97 a month. If you divide at three month program, it comes to less than 25 bucks per session. Three-month program, it comes to less than $25 per session. Less than $25 per session is the most affordable coaching you are going to find and I promise you, promise you, promise you the public accountability. The WhatsApp group Amy's in there every day, kevin and I. It's just get around a group of people who want to see you win. That's what this is. Get around a group of people who want to see you win, who also hold you accountable by leading by example.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, we have podcasters that changed their names, they rebranded, they created products and services for the first time maybe. So it's really designed for you. If you're a podcaster who is trying to figure out how to make it a business, but you want to grow yourself, you understand how important self-improvement is. It's what we would have needed 100%, 100%. It's very specific, but it's also I don't know, I feel like it's not too specific. You don't have to be a self-improvement podcaster.

Outro

Kevin Palmieri

If you're a podcaster who wants to get better, that's the whole thing and better yourself, better podcasting, better business. So I'll have the link in the show notes for that. We would love to have you, if you are interested, and make sure you tell someone who wants to be more next level about NLU. That helps us, it helps you and it helps your friend or your family member or whoever it is, and that's one of the best ways to grow a podcast. So we would appreciate that very much if you would do it. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU we don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Alan Lazaros

Keep after it Next Level Nation.

Kevin Palmieri

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

We mean it when we say family. If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

Head Shot

Alan Lazaros

Host
Head Shot

Kevin Palmieri

Host